Korra: Woman of the Apes
by thatACDCchick
Summary: When Korra's parents were slayed by the leopard, Sabor, she was taken in by a family of apes. Through the guidance of the spirits and the knowledge left behind by her parents, she learns that she is the Avatar and that she has a destiny to fulfill. Brothers Mako and Bolin trek the forest to finish the research of their father with their guide, Amon, the discover more than expected.
1. Chapter 1

**UPDATE:**_I replaced Amon's name with his original birth name, Noatak. I finally figured out what Amon would want from the gorillas besides the money from their pelts and so he's known as Noatak for now and will be later revealed to be Amon. _

**Prologue**

Korra owed her life to the spirits. They lead Kala to her in the abandoned Treehouse when she was an infant. Her parents had been brutally slaughtered by Sabor the leopard but Kala found her and took her in as her own child to replace the one she had lost. Even though Kala's mate Kerchak strongly disapproved of Korra, Kala loved her and raised her. But despite Kala's love, Korra grew up a stranger in her adopted family.

Then the spirits returned and told Korra of her destiny as the Avatar. A being able to control the four elements and contact the spirit realm from the mortal plain. They lead her to the collection of books and scrolls that had once belonged to her parents and their people. An entire library's full of knowledge about the Bending arts. Why her parents had so many of these books baffled Korra but she ignored the questions that surrounded the thoughts. Instead she focused on her training. For even though the spirits had disappeared once again, she knew she had to train. She knew she had to fulfill her destiny.

On top of training, of course, she had to blend into the gorillas as best as she could. Even though they spurned her, she loved them. She wanted to be part of them more than anything else. They were her family. So she came up with her own tricks to keep up with them. She learned how to swing from the vines of the African jungle and built her own tools to protect herself and gather food with.

Eventually things began to fall into place. Into a sort of rhythm. But it all changed the day Sabor returned.

**Part 1**

Korra snuck out from the leaves behind her mother. Slowly, very slowly, she crept up on her as Kala broke open a hard, yellow fruit and took a bite from the soft insides. Then, just as she had practiced for years, Korra drew in a deep breath for her patented elephant imitation.

"It's not going to work, Korra," Kala said without looking behind her.

Korra let the breath out through her lips and slumped forward.

"How'd you know it was me?" she asked.

"Because I'm your mother. I know everything. Now where have you been all morning?"

Korra laughed as she picked up a fruit with her foot and brought it closer. "I thought you knew everything."

Before Kala could reply, a rolling bundle of dark hair barreled into Korra and knocked her from the branch. Looking up from the ground she could see it was her childhood friend, Terk.

"Hi, Auntie K!" Terk said cheerfully. "You're looking remarkably well groomed today."

A smile spread across Korra's face as she readied herself to spring back up to the branch and exact her revenge. Using the power of the earth, she launched herself upwards and straight into Terk.

"Excuse us!" Terk called to Kala as they tumbled downwards through the group of resting gorillas who all made way for the pair.

They landed at the bottom of the hill and bumped into Tantor the elephant.

"Oh dear, oh dear! Not again!" he fretted as he watched his best friends tumble through the dirt and foliage.

They wrestled and fought, twisting this way and that and ended up rolling into a clearing with Tantor right on their tails still voicing his incessant worries.

"You know it's all fun and games until someone breaks a bone!" he pointed out just as Korra gathered Terk up into a headlock.

Then she paused having felt something. They weren't alone in the clearing.

"Hey! Down here! Can't breathe!" Terk called breaking Korra from her reverie.

"Oh… sorry," she replied and released her friend. She looked around the clearing and up into the trees. "Something's not right."

Just then, Sabor burst from the foliage and charged at Korra with his claws fully extended. Korra kicked her foot out and sent Sabor flying through the air just as she had flown. Only Sabor couldn't control his path through the air so he ended up crashing hard through the bushes behind the trio. The feeling of victory was short lived, however, when they heard the roars of Kerchak fighting off the intruder.

Panic flooded through Korra and she quickly climbed a tree to get a better look at the situation. Sabor had Kerchak pinned beneath his massive paws and there was blood pooling beneath them on the leaves. Rage now replaced the feeling of panic and Korra extended her arms to bend water from the leaves beneath Sabor and Kerchak to be launched at Sabor. This served to knock the leopard from her adoptive father and opened an opportunity for her to attack with a burst of fire.

Startled cries met her ears and she realized her family would be in more danger if she used her power over fire. Instead she hurled rocks at Sabor and drove him back. Then he turned and launched his own attack against Korra, but she was too quick. She lead the leopard away from the gorillas and through the trees. They followed from high in the trees where Sabor couldn't reach them.

When Sabor and Korra stopped in another clearing, they gathered around and watched as they screeched at Sabor and cheered Korra on. The fight raged on through the clearing and into the bushes and even the twisted roots of the trees until they finally collapsed down a hole covered by vines, leaves and roots over the decades.

A single flash of fire signaled the end of the battle and Korra emerged from the hole with the dead body of Sabor draped over her shoulders. She gazed around the clearing at the incredulous faces of her family before lifting the leopard above her head and letting loose and mighty cry that rivaled even Kerchak.

Only when her friends surrounded her and congratulated her did she remember Kerchak. He was their leader and she had claimed his kill, even if he was doomed to lose the fight. Once more, she heaved the body over her shoulders and made her way over to Kerchak to lay the offering at his feet. At first he looked enraged so she backed off a little and bent her head forward.

Then something new shone in the old gorilla's eyes. Something she had never seen in him before when he looked at her. Respect. The moment of silence was broken by a sound never before heard in the jungle. It split the air and startled every animal in the vicinity. Puzzled, Korra looked back to Kerchak for guidance.

"Go," he ordered at last. "Scout the area."

With a nod, Korra summoned the vines to her and took off.

**Part 2**

Mako was tired of the heat. Especially the humidity. The way it clung to his skin and refused to dissipate. Then their guide aimed at something unseen in the bushes and fired his gun for the umpteenth time.

"Noatak! If you keep making noise, you'll scare all the gorillas away!" he shouted in frustration.

"Yeah," Mako's younger brother, Bolin, agreed snapping shut his field journal. "We hired you to protect us! Not scare away our subjects!"

"I _am_ protecting you, boys," he pointed out smoothly. "By scaring away any would-be attackers." The next second, he spun the gun in his hands and fired. The shot just barely missed Korra who was hiding in the leaves.

She didn't know which shocked her more. The strange power the larger man with short, black hair and piercing blue eyes wielded or the fact that the trio looked more like her than any of the gorillas ever would. Recovering from the shock of seeing these strange beings that were so like her, she inched forward slowly and quietly to listen to the noises they made. She didn't know what it meant, but the two younger creatures seemed agitated at the larger man's lack of respect to the wildlife.

"We _have _to be careful!" Noatak insisted.

"We _are _being careful. We let you bring all that vile weaponry with you on this expedition," Mako retorted. "We're trying to _find _the gorillas, not _kill _them."

A look crossed Noatak's face and the next instant he smoothed out his features. "Fine, we'll do it your way."

Suddenly, Bolin gasped. "Mako! Look! It's just like in dad's journal!" he called.

"What is it?" Mako asked excitedly.

"A nest! Look where you're standing! We found a gorilla's nest!"

Mako gazed down and saw what his brother was talking about. There it was. A near perfect circle flattened in the leaves covering the ground and a little ring of leaves and vines surrounding it. Dark, coarse hair stuck to some of the branches and leaves in the nest.

"It _is _just like dad's book," Mako breathed.

His golden eyes softened in a way that made something deep in her heart tug. Oh how she longed to reach out to him. To touch the pale skin of his forearms and the strange material that covered him up.

She watched as two of the men turned to leave but the one with golden eyes stayed behind to sketch in his book. When a baby baboon hopped into the nest with Mako, he quickly flipped to a fresh page and drew a hasty sketch of the baby. Things only went downhill from there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 3**

How was Mako supposed to know that the baby baboon would take his book as soon as he had finished the sketch? And how was he supposed to know that the thing would start crying when Mako took his book back? Now he was being chased at high speed through the thick underbrush by a whole herd of the creatures. How he longed to lash back, to send an arc of fire over their heads and make them go away. Only scare them, though. He'd never want to hurt them. Besides, if he tried to firebend here, he might catch the whole forest on fire and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

Then he spotted the edge of a cliff and Mako knew he had two choices. A: surrender to the baboons chasing him and risk being torn to shreds or B: jump off the cliff and hope there was something soft to catch him. Risking a glace back, he saw the sharp teeth and glaring eyes and decided he'd take his chance with the cliff. When he leapt off the edge, he expected to fall, but instead he flew.

Opening his eyes he saw the ground racing away below him and felt something tugging at the belt of his pants. When he looked upwards, he got an excellent view of Korra's shirt whipping away in the wind as she guided them along the vines. She looked down at him with curious, blue eyes. They arced through the air spectacularly and landed on a sturdy branch just sticking out from the tree canopy where Korra caught him and held him tightly.

"Put me down! Put me down!" he demanded and struggled against her hold. She immediately took this back when the crashing sounds of their pursuers drew closer. "No! Pick me up! Pick me up!"

Korra obliged and they sped off down the branch at top speed. They were able to lose most of the baboons through the twisting and turning branches of the trees and in a hollowed out log. When they came to a stop once more, Korra was pressing against him to keep them out of the way of the falling log full of angry baboons which landed below them. When Mako looked up, Korra was speaking to one of the baboons using high-pitched chittering sounds. At one point, she turned back to him and grabbed the page which Mako had drawn the baby baboon on and handed it to the angry one behind her. This seemed to satisfy it as it hopped off with the baby on its back clutching the page.

When Korra turned back to Mako, he was trying to climb his way clumsily through the tree. All along the way he was muttering to himself.

"I'm in a tree with a wild woman who talks to monkeys," he was saying as he eased his foot over the edge. "I can't do this. I have to get back. Oh, no wait, this is good." He got a good footing on the next branch over and pushed himself off the other branch only to lose his balance and almost topple out of the tree entirely. "No! No! This is bad! This is very, very bad!" He grabbed the edge of the branch he was just on and found himself stuck. His hands grasped one branch while his feet pressed against another. Between the two was empty air straight down to the jungle floor. "This can't get much worse." And then it rained.

**Part 4**

Korra leapt down onto the branch where Mako's hands were, startling him and causing him to push back suddenly but without enough force for him to fall safely backwards onto the other branch.

"No, go away!" he shouted as he wheeled his hands through the air.

Korra pressed a hand to his chest and pushed him back. Mako scooted along the branch and pressed his back against the trunk of the tree.

"Stay back," he ordered. "Don't come any closer."

He pushed his foot which he just realized was missing its boot into her chest to keep her at bay. This only intrigued Korra who grabbed his foot and began examining it closely. Mako began to laugh as her fingers ran along the bottom of his foot sending tickling sensations up through him.

"No, please, that tickles!" he begged. "Get off, get off, get off!" He kicked at her when her hands traveled further up his leg.

She jumped back for a moment and shook her head defiantly. Then she crept closer and examined the stranger much to his protests. When she was an inch away from his face, she reached out and grasped his face in her hand to which he pulled a hand back to push her away only for her to grab it and hold it up to her face. She examined it with such a sense of curiosity that Mako had never seen before. It was as if she had never seen another person before.

Slowly, she peeled the wet and dirt glove from his hand and stared at the calloused palm beneath. Then she pressed her own hand flat against, marveling at how well they fit together even though hers was smaller. Something lit up in her eyes and she let her hand fall. Korra went in a little closer and lowered her ear to his chest. His breath hitched in his throat but Korra could hear it loud and clear: his heartbeat. Just like her mother's. Just like her own. A satisfied smile spread across her face and she grasped his face once more to bring his ear down to her down chest so he could hear her heartbeat and let him know they were the same. Mako's face burned red hot and he coughed as he extricated himself from her hold.

"Y-yes, I hear it… um…," he tried to search for the right words having never been this close to a woman before. "Very nice heartbeat, you got there. Very strong." He felt his down heart racing like a hummingbird.

"Very nice," Korra replied imitating the noises Mako had made.

"You… you can speak?" he asked. "Here I was thinking you were just a-."

But Korra stopped him by pressing a finger to his lips. She then drew herself up and gestured to herself.

"Korra," she said.

Mako stared back incomprehensibly. She tried again, this time speaking slower and a little louder over the pouring rain.

"Kor-ra."

Then it dawned on him. It was her name.

"Oh, I see," he replied.

"Oh-I-see!" she said excitedly. "Korra. Oh-I-see."

"No, no, no… no. I'm Mako."

Korra repeated his words down to the hand gestures he made.

"No." He pointed to himself. "Mako." He pointed to her. "Korra."

"Mako."

"Exactly," he said softly with a smile.

Then a gunshot rose above the sound of the dying rain. They looked over the tree canopy towards the rising smoke from the camp Mako, Bolin and Noatak had set up that morning.

"Noatak!" he cried out as he stood for a better view.

Korra leapt up and grasped the branch above them. "Noatak!" she shouted and imitated the sound of the gunshot.

"Yes! Can you take me to them?" he asked.

Korra imitated the gunshot once more as she drew a vine towards her and grasped onto Mako's waist.

"Um," he mumbled as she pulled him closer to the edge. "Can't we walk?!"

His question was swallowed by the sound of the wind rushing in his ears and Korra imitating it as they flew.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 5**

Noatak sat at one of the many tables the boys had insisted on bringing with them on the expedition as he cleaned one of the many guns he owned. They were talking in scientific gibberish and pouring over notes. The older boy, Mako, had arrived back at camp looking a complete mess. But still the mud and scratches that covered him didn't seem to rival the state of destruction they had found their camp in. Dinnerware had been tossed from the cupboards and drawers and shattered on the jungle floor. Books and papers were scattered everywhere from the crates in which they had been packed in to the trees surrounding the clearing. When he saw the carnage, Noatak's first worry was for his own equipment so while the boys (children, really) zipped around camp trying to get things back into order, Noatak took a peek into the crates he had hidden in a ditch on the edge of camp.

To his relief, nothing had been touched, though he discovered one of the vials of liquid had cracked and was now leaking through the bottom of the crate, he concluded that this damage had occurred during transport. Luckily the boys didn't see or know about this equipment. They thought him to be a mindless thug who was only there for the handsome salary they had offered him. While it was true he greatly needed the money for funding, his true reason was not too far off from the boy's: the gorillas.

They were the final piece to the puzzle, the missing link that would set everything into motion. With the gorillas, he would be unstoppable. He smiled to himself as he watched the boys bring out a blackboard so that Mako could better describe the woman he claimed to have met to Bolin.

_'Wild women living in the African jungle,' _Noatak thought to himself with a chuckle. _'That boy definitely hit his head a little too hard or ate something he shouldn't have.' _

"You definitely ate something you shouldn't have, Korra," Terk scoffed as she, Korra and Tantor walked a little ways behind the rest of the gorillas.

Korra had landed in the camp with a strange looking creature and tried to tell her and the rest of their friends something about the creature being like her. Then Kerchak arrived and ordered everyone to leave the area immediately. All the respect Korra seemed to have earned by slaying Sabor had evaporated in an instant and now Kerchak was back to grudgingly accepting Korra in the group at the great insistence of Kala. Now, as Terk walked alongside her childhood friend, she noticed that something was different. Korra kept looking over her shoulder as if she wanted to go back to that camp and to the creature she had to leave behind.

"Hey! Don't you dare think about going back there, Korra," Terk warned.

"Ooooh, if you go back, Kerchak will _definitely_ get mad and you really don't want to get him mad," Tantor fretted.

"Why are you even here, Tantor?" Korra snapped. "Aren't you supposed to be with the rest of the elephants?"

Tantor looked taken aback and his small eyes filled with tears as his great ears drooped and his feet shuffled along in the dirt.

"Korra!" Terk was shocked. "She didn't mean it, big guy, seriously. She just has some _issues_ to resolve which include forgetting those weird animals back at their nest."

"How can I when they're the first things I've ever seen that look like me? Not even the Spirits looked like I do! But that… I don't know… creature? Animal? Whatever? He looked more like me than any gorilla in the family could."

"All the more reason you should forget him! He could be dangerous!"

Korra's eyes softened at some memory Terk couldn't see. "He could never be dangerous."

Terk huffed and walked ahead of Korra and Tantor as she muttered angrily under her breath.

**Part 6**

"I'm telling you, Bo, her learning capabilities are _amazing_. Not only was she able to understand and effectively communicate to the monkeys, she managed to mimic me speaking English in order to tell me her name," Mako was saying excitedly as he lined up documents on a table.

Bolin, who was setting up the blackboard, looked more than a little skeptical. "But if you're right and she hasn't had any human interaction, how is that even possible for her to recognize the words in the first place? Plus, how has she been able to survive for so long out here?"

"I'm not sure," Mako said slowly as he walked over and began sketching a diagram of Korra on the board. "There was something about her movements. They were very ape-like. The way she walked, sort of crouched, like this." He crouched down and demonstrated how she had walked using her knuckles to drive her along. "Also, when we were swinging from those vines, I noticed something else-."

"That's hard to believe considering how much you were screaming. We could hear you all the way by the river," Bolin chuckled.

Mako ignored his brother and went on. "Sometimes when there was a vine just out of reach from her, it seemed as if she drew the vine towards her. And the air currents as we landed. Like there was a little cushion of air to catch us or something."

"You don't think she could be a lost Water Tribe member, do you? I remember stories about Water Tribe immigrants getting lost at sea. Ironic, don't you think?"

"Yeah, there was something in dad's notes about- ahah! I found it! _The Foggy Swamp Tribe_." Mako spread the book out and read aloud the passage. "'_Legend tells of a tribe of waterbenders hidden deep within the mystical Foggy Swamp located in the Earth Kingdom. Some say that they use the water within the plants in order to manipulate the roots or water saturated plants native to the swamp. However, no confirmation on the existence of the Foggy Swamp Water Tribe exists outside of the memoirs of Avatar Aang during his journey to master the four elements and defeat the tyrant Fire Lord Ozai.' _It's all right here! She _has _to be a waterbender."

Bolin continued to stare at the passage with his brows knit together in thought. "Or it could have just been the fear of flying through the air with a wild woman that made you see things…." He said in a quiet voice.

"How are we even sure this '_wild woman'_ is even real to begin with?" Noatak asked condescendingly. "For all we know, the boy ate something he shouldn't have and was hallucinating everything he's told us. And if that's the case, he should thank the Spirits he still conscious."

Rage flared briefly in Mako's eyes. "I _wasn't _hallucinating. Korra was-." He broke off when a slim, dark skinned figure leapt from the trees and landed in the middle of the trio. "Real," he finished with a smug look of satisfaction on his face.

"Oh my-. Whoa!" Bolin cried out and jumped back.

"Look out!" Noatak shouted as he drew a pistol from his belt and took aim.

"No don't!" Mako exclaimed and knocked Noatak's hand upwards so the bullet flew harmlessly into the trees.

"You can't shoot her!" Bolin dropped his voice and whispered. "She's a girl."

"Noatak!" Korra declared.

The three men looked at her with various degrees of surprise on their faces.

"Noatak!" she repeated with a smile on her face.

"Have we met?" the guide asked bending forwards to examine the stranger.

"I think she's associated your name with the sound of a gunshot," Mako observed.

"Extraordinary. What's she doing, now?" Bolin asked as he watched her stand upright and take on the same fighting stance Noatak had adopted.

Noatak instantly became aware that he was in a waterbending stance and corrected himself so that he was standing upright. Sure enough, Korra stood straight up with her head held high.

_'Too close,' _Noatak thought to himself. _'If they had recognized that waterbending stance, my cover would have been blown. Another six months down the drain.'_

Noatak stepped back and watched as the girl, Korra, resumed her normal crouched stance and walked up to Mako.

"Mako," she said softly as she straightened once more to reach out and touch one of the loosened locks of Mako's hair.

"H-h-hello, Korra," he replied with a deep red blush creeping up on his face.

Just then, thunder rolled overhead and the sky darkened as rain poured for the second time that day. The men retreated to the safety of a tent canopy to escape the downpour but Korra merely raised a hand and stopped the rain dead in its tracks above her head. Bolin's mouth dropped open and he dropped the armful of documents he was saving from the rain. He nudged Mako who did a double take before smiling.

"She _is _a waterbender."


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 7**

Much to the protests of Noatak and Korra's friends, the brothers began to teach Korra at the same time that they were searching for the gorillas. Early every morning she would sneak away to the camp and Mako would teach her how to speak, read and write in English then Bolin would take over and teach her about the world.

"The world out there is _huge_ and full of amazing things you couldn't even begin to imagine," he explained one day. "Mako and I are from a city called Republic City. It's around… here."

On the map he had spread out he drew a little black dot on the coast of one of the larger landmasses labeled "Earth Kingdom." Korra looked at the pen with wonder and snatched it from Bolin's hand to try writing for herself. She pushed the point to the paper of the map and scribbled it around and for a little bit it worked, leaving great, black lines that cut through the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom and Western Air Temple, but then the ink stopped flowing so Korra lifted it to her face and fiddled with the little gold clip until ink squirted her in the face and she threw the pen away in alarm. After Mako and Bolin had stopped laughing at the sight of ink splattered over her face, Mako took out a linen handkerchief to clean up the mess. Korra's eyes seemed to soften when he held her face gently in his hand to wipe the ink from her cheeks.

Bolin was just starting to feel awkward when a loud growl met his ears and he wheeled around to see a jaguar crouched and ready to pounce with razor sharp teeth bared. He had enough time to cry out in alarm and bend the earth beneath the jaguar's paws so that it flew into the air and thumped into the trunk of a tree. Mako released Korra's face and ran to aid his little brother. Noatak emerged from his tent with white foam still speckled on his chin from the spots he hadn't shaved and a rifle clutched in his hands. He took aim at the jaguar but missed as the beast leapt for Mako who shot a ball of fire and Bolin fired a chunk of rock into the jaguar's side.

The jaguar looked around in annoyance at the prey turned opponents before choosing to leap at Noatak. Korra came out of seemingly nowhere sending a stream of water to hit the jaguar in the side and then bend a tent of earth to trap it and finally slayed it with an arc of fire that cut off its angered growl mid-cry.

"Korra!" Mako called out.

"That was…," Noatak stammered.

"She…," Bolin mumbled.

"You're the Avatar…," Mako finished.

Korra stared down at the jaguar with rage before throwing her head back and letting loose a battle cry similar to the one she used after killing Sabor. Afterwards, when Korra had gone back to her family, the three men gathered and discussed what they had just discovered. Noatak didn't show it, but he was feeling a mixture of elation and rage. He believed that she had been killed years ago when his people discovered her whereabouts in the Southern Water Tribe and her parents had loaded her up onto a ship with a library's worth of knowledge on the bending arts to try and escape to one of the temples dedicated to the Avatar.

But now that he knew she was here, alive where he had her cornered and she didn't know exactly what she was or what it meant, it would be easy as pie to kill her once he had the gorillas in his possession. The brothers, however, were arguing about what was more important, taking the Avatar back out into the world so that she could liberate it from the tyranny of the Equalists and their leader, Amon, or finding the gorillas to finish their father's work.

"It would mean months and months of work and thousands of dollars going right down the drain," Bolin argued.

"But if we take her out of here and let her save the world, afterward we'd be able to fund a hundred expeditions! We're still young! We have plenty of chances to come back here!" Mako countered.

"And if someone finishes what we started, it would all be for nothing."

"What good will that knowledge be in a world like the one the Equalists is leading us into?!"

"If I may boys, we do have the chance to do both simultaneously," Noatak interjected. The brothers turned and glared at their guide. "Now here me out. If we teach the girl how to speak, we can convince her to take us to the gorillas, then, after your calculations and jibber jabber is done, we can take her home."

They fell silent and considered his words. Finally, Bolin stood and broke the silence.

"I don't care what you say, dad's research comes first and foremost. Do what you want, but I'm looking for the gorillas," he said.

"Fine… I don't need you to teach Korra… she's the Avatar for spirits' sake! That's important! So just go! Leave!" Mako ranted.

When they had both stormed off to their respected tents, Noatak took the chance to smile to himself at the luck he had just been given.

**Part 8**

And so things continued on ass if nothing had happened… well… almost. Now, instead of Bolin teaching Korra about the world, it was Mako telling her about the nations and the state in which they lived. Her knowledge expanded and she quickly learned how to speak English, albeit with limited grammar, and she was soon able to name the five different nations and their leaders. Meanwhile, Bolin and Noatak trekked through the jungle brush every day when Korra and Mako were together. Meals were taken separately and in silence. Mako hated to fight with his brother, the only family he had in the world, but he knew he was doing the right thing by teaching Korra. Then, all too soon, their last night in the jungle arrived and Mako knew it was his last chance to convince her.

"Korra… um… I don't know how to say it but…," Mako stammered.

"Is there something wrong, Mako?" she asked, concerned.

"We have to leave, tomorrow… to go back to Republic City and well… we may never be able to come back."

"You would… leave me? Forever?" She sounded heartbroken.

"No! Well… if we're able to get enough money to come back, we will, but it might not be for a long time…," his voice trailed off. "You can come with us, you know… you're the Avatar. Your significance to the world is unparalleled, especially now."

"Then I would leave my mother… and Terk… and Tantor and all the others all alone," she fussed. "I can't… I-."

Overwhelmed, she rushed from the tent and into the thick chest of Bolin.

"Bolin, I-."

"There's another way for us to be able to come back or even stay…," he interrupted.

"How! Bolin, I would do anything!"

"Show us where the gorillas are. Even if you just draw it on a map for us. That's the whole reason why we came here. If we found them, the society would fund countless expeditions for us so that we could fully research and understand them."

"But I can't… Kerchak he-." Once more she broke off her sentence and rushed off into the dark night of the jungle.

After wandering for what seemed like hours, she found herself at a cliff near the sea and a large bridge that seemed vaguely familiar. Kerchak never brought them this close to the coast before. It was as if he were purposefully avoiding something hidden there but she couldn't help but recognize the giant structure before her. It was the treehouse the spirits had led her to as a child when they told her about her destiny. In a daze with her eyes red and puffy from crying, she walked across the bridge and into the little world her parents had left behind.

The jungle was adamant to reclaim the changes that were made and so many holes had been punched into the walls, floor and roof of the hut with leaves and all kinds of foliage forming a carpet and pulling the walls apart board by board. She wandered into the little sitting area where her parents had set up a large, red chair next to a roughly carved rocking chair and a little table set in between them. Her foot came down on a small picture set into a frame and she looked down when she heard the glass cracking.

When she turned it over she found it coated in a thick film of dust. Using her knuckles, she wiped away the dust to reveal three faces. The first was of a man with long hair pulled back into a complicated braid and wearing a furred coat. The second face belonged to a woman with kind eyes and holding a bundle wrapped in fur pressed close to her breast which was also covered with a fur coat. From the bundle peeked a small, round face with large eyes and a grin on her face. All three had the same dark skin and hair as Korra and they bore the same resemblance. Something deep inside Korra's memories told her that the baby was her and the other two people were her parents. They were standing amongst a sea of white. Mako had told her about the stuff during their lessons. Snow. That was what he called it.

A soft blue and purple glow broke Korra from her reverie and she looked up to see a tall figure wrapped in orange and yellow robes with a bearded face and an arrow tattooed onto his bald head.

"Who are you?" she asked in ape, then realized that the figure probably wouldn't be able to understand her so she asked again in English.

"I am you, Korra," the man replied.

You're one of my past lives?"

The man nodded his head. "I am Avatar Aang. I was your previous incarnation, born into the Air Nomads over a hundred and eighty years ago."

"Yes, Mako has told me about you. He's taught me a lot of things," she admitted.

"Mako is a good man. He will be a good husband and father to you one day."

"Wh-what?" Korra asked with a blush.

"But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to warn you, Korra. There are many dangers ahead for you. A lot of them you won't be able to face alone. Some of them even include the family you've grown up with."

"What?!" she cried.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you much, but I can say that the danger is very near. Amon is close by and his plans are almost complete."

"Amon… the leader of the Equalists… he's here? But how?"

"I can't say. I must leave, now, Korra. Just do me a favor… help your friends. Repay their kindness the same way they've helped you."

And with that, Avatar Aang faded back into the spirit world leaving the abandoned treehouse feeling darker and colder than before.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**_Sup? Sorry I haven't been updating this. I sort of lost my mojo for it when I started watching other shows and writing other fanfics. But I'm feeling it. Can you feel it? ARE YOU FEELING IT MR. KRABS? _

**Part 9**

"Are you sure about this, Korra?" Bolin asked for the millionth time. "We've checked this place already. We didn't find any gorillas."

"They are very good at hiding," she told him as she pulled aside the foliage to allow them to pass.

After her encounter with her past Avatar life, she had sat in the treehouse to think things over. She had realized that her only chance for Mako an Bolin to stay with her would be for them to see the gorillas in person. And so she decided to disobey her surrogate father's orders and led them to the gorillas' current nesting grounds. In the meantime, Terk and Tantor were running rampant through the jungle keeping Kerchak's attention drawn on them instead of on the humans.

After an hour of hiking through the underbrush, they finally made it to the small, shaded clearing dotted with nests in the ground where the gorilla families had slept the previous night. Only one gorilla was sitting in the clearing examining a flower in her hands. She turned around when she heard them approaching with a startled look in her eyes. Mako gasped when they drew nearer.

"She's beautiful," he breathed.

"She's my mother," Korra said. Mako looked at her incredulously and watched as Korra crouched down and hooted at her mother telling her it was alright, that they were safe.

Kala didn't believe her daughter's words and backed off with fear coloring her features. Mako decided to remedy the situation by crouching down and mimicking Korra's hoots. Then he pulled Bolin down and urged him to do the same.

"This is ridiculous," Noatak scoffed. "Let's get out of here before…. On second thought… don't get up…."

Around them in the trees, the faces of other gorillas poked out from the leaves hearing the words Korra, Mako and Bolin were saying haltingly in the gorilla's language. One of the younger ones escaped his mother's grasp and hopped forward. The baby scowled at Mako, puffed his chest up and beat it making what he thought was intimidating sounds but the display only served to make the firebender laugh. More and more of the younger gorillas hopped forward much to the disliking of their mothers but as time passed, they too moved forward tentatively. They hooted excitedly and pointed out how odd the boys looked.

"Would you like to say something to them?" Korra asked Mako.

"S-sure! That'd be great!" he replied excitedly.

"Alright… hee-hoo. Hoo-hoo-ha," she hooted clearly.

After a few tries, Mako got the sounds memorized and successfully repeated them to the baby gorillas surrounding them. Whatever he had said, it made them very excited.

"What did I say?" he laughed.

"That you would stay with me," she replied.

"Oh, Korra…," he groaned. "You… you know we have to leave soon. The boat…."

"But… but I don't understand! You have met my family! You have to stay!" she pleaded.

Just then, a very scared looking Terk burst through the bushes followed soon by Tantor and finally by Kerchak baring his teeth an howling in rage. When he spotted the men interacting with the gorillas, he bellowed and beat his chest. Unlike the baby gorilla, this display was terrifying enough for them to run away the way they had come leaving Korra at the mercy of the silverback gorilla.

"How dare you?!" he roared at her.

"They were doing no harm to us!" she retorted.

"You have endangered this family for the last time!" Kerchak raged.

"Kerchak, no!" Kala cried out pushing her way through the crowd.

"Fine! I'll leave! I'll get out of your fur! The human's boat arrives tomorrow and I'm going with them!" Korra screeched.

"What?!" Terk exclaimed. "Why?"

"I was never wanted in this family, anyways. I know you all want me gone, well wish granted! At least with the humans I'm _important_! I _mean_ something to them!" she countered. "I was nothing but a burden on all of you! Well no more…. No more." She felt her chest constrict and sobs threaten to break through. All the pain she had felt at their hate towards her finally surfaced. She found herself unable to look at them any longer and ran in the direction the men had gone.

**Part 10**

The next morning, Korra sat aboard a little row boat with Mako and Bolin as they made their way to the ship anchored a few miles off shore. Noatak had gone ahead of them to finish preparations for the journey. Korra was still feeling depressed after her encounter with Kerchak the previous day and so was unable to notice the men rowing the boat glancing at each other as if waiting for some sort of signal. Nor did she notice Terk and Tantor standing on the beach watching her get farther and farther away. Anger built up in Terk who began hollering and throwing whatever she could into the ocean. When her energy was spent, she turned and told Tantor to get a move on before Kerchak noticed they were gone.

After what seemed like ages, the row boat made it to the hull of the ship where a rope ladder descended for them to climb aboard. As they climbed, Bolin rambled on about the outside world. He told them about how he couldn't wait to get to the society and shove it in their faces that his and Mako's father had been right about the family group structure of gorilla herds. He also talked about all of the different types of food he had missed. He was trying to decide which type of soup he would want to eat with his meal when they made it back to Republic City when he disappeared over the side with a yelp.

"Bo?" Mako asked tentatively.

The click of a gun hammer being pulled into place met their ears. Below him, Korra was being held at gunpoint by one of the rowers now holding a flintlock pistol to her temple.

"Keep climbing, fire boy. Or the girl gets it," the man ordered showing his yellow and brown teeth.

On the deck, they found Bolin already bound and gagged amongst the few crew members not part of the mutiny and the original captain of the ship.

"Noatak! They've taken over the ship!" Mako called out when he spotted the guide emerging from the captain's cabin.

"Yes, I know… I told them to do it," he smiled and pulled the hood of his dark jacket he now wore and placed a mask over his face.

The mask was simple in design with lines highlighting the features and a blood-red circle in the middle of the forehead. It was a face Mako and Bolin knew all too well. A face they had feared for far too long. The face of the enemy of all those with the power to bend the elements.

"Amon," Mako breathed.

"I'd like to thank you for leading me to victory, boys. Not only did you give me the gorillas, you gave me the Avatar," Amon spoke in a calm, even tone that rang with righteous power with all of the arrogance that Noatak had spoken with drained away. "With this, you have cemented my victory over the tyranny of benders."

"Why are you doing this?" Mako dared to ask.

Amon turned his back to the boy and gazed over the horizon at the African shore.

"For justice. For equality. No longer shall you benders' tyranny reign over the non-benders. With that I am about to accomplish here, no one will have to fear the power held over their heads."

Amon walked over to Mako and leaned forward so that the young firebender's blazing eyes met the expressionless ones of the mask.

"The spirits have willed it," Amon continued. "They gave me the means. They _showed _me the way."

"Liar!" came a shout from Amon's left.

Korra was livid. She looked angrier than the silverback that had chased him from the nest. For a fleeting moment, Amon feared the power of the Avatar. He was afraid of the power she held that Amon could only dream of.

_'But she's also a bender. One of the tyrannical scum destroying the world. She _can _be put in her place. Just like all the others,' _said a voice in the back of his mind.

Amon took a deep breath and cleared his mind before approaching the young Avatar.

"How do I lie, girl? Do you not believe that there are spirits who recognize your abuse of power? They came to me. They gave me the ability to save the world," he told her.

Korra's eyes widened and her face grew slack as the mutineer behind her struck her over the head. With a nod, two more pirates came forward and lifted the unconscious Avatar and carried her to the cargo hold where they tossed her and the other prisoners into.

"Come my friends!" Amon called holding his hands before him. "The time has come for us to fulfill our destinies! With the gorillas in our possession, we will once and for all have the power to overcome the benders! We will be free once and for all!"

The men cheered and rushed to the boats loaded with steel cages, guns, ropes and knives. It was time to hunt some gorillas.


End file.
